Something Like Sunshine
by Musafreen
Summary: Or, three times members of the Hades-Pluto clan attempted to express their affections, with varying degrees of success.
1. Yellow

**Notes:** Written for Aeron Thana's Color Challenge. And I adore things with short word limits because that means I can actually post stuff. Even if my inner writing person calls out for more space. XD

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**Character: **Nico di Angelo

**Mood: **Love

**Color:** Yellow

**Word Count:** 481

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Westover was a dismal, dull place. In her more morose moments, Bianca darkly compared it to the land of the dead. Personally, Nico thought the whole Castle With Instruments of War Mounted on the wall thing was kinda cool, but Bianca tended to walk past the display muttering under her breath in Italian. She'd become really cranky lately.

Which was why Nico intended to make the most of the day. Which was why he had sneaked into the girl's side of the dormitories (he'd always been good at sneaking around, for some reason) and woken her up early in the morning with a cheerful rendition of _Happy Birthday_.

Ten minutes, multiple pillows thrown at him and a red-faced Bianca dragging him out of her room by the elbow later, he wondered if he could have done it some other way.

But whatever. Bianca was awake, right?

"What did you think you were doing?" she hissed at him once they were out of range of the pillows (man, some of those girls had an _arm_) and in one of the gazillion or so corridors in the place.

"Wishing you Happy Birthday," Nico told her, even though it should have been obvious.

"At _five-thirty_ in the morning?"

"I wanted to be the first one to wish you." Which should have been obvious too.

Bianca opened her mouth to say something, sighed and settled for rubbing her forehead instead. She tended to do that a lot these days. Which reminded him-

"And I got you a present."

She blinked at that.

"_How?_"

"Traded my extra Athena card for it. Well, it and a couple of Cyclopses and a Dionysus. Cyclopses are always good, and everyone thinks Dionysus is weird but I think-"

"Nico."

"Oh, okay. Right. Here," he finally found it buried under a few extra cards in his pyjama pocket, "Happy Birthday. Again."

She gingerly took it from his hand and stared at it.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Why-"

"Because you could seriously use a smile," he told her solemnly. And he was serious about that. Bianca _should_ smile more.

"And a yellow smiley pin is going to cheer me up?"

"It should cheer anyone up," Nico told her (it was a cute smiley pin), "But even if it doesn't, you'll still have a smile. Which doesn't make much sense, I know. But it's symbolic, or something. See- you're smiling already."

"I'm not!"

He grinned at her.

"Fine! Maybe a little, but no more five am wake-up calls, okay?"

"Okay," he told her, and grinned again, "So, you have any idea what you want to do till breakfast? I'm thinking we should go to the east wing and try to find the dungeons again because Theo Porter thinks Dr. Thorn has prisoners there and stuff."

Bianca sighed at him again, but he could tell she didn't mean it. The smile sort of gave her away.


	2. Black

**Notes: **There are a couple of refrences in here to what I pretty much consider Nico!headcanon continuity. These headcanons were not made by me, but rather by _Mission to Marzipan_ and _Proud to be Plug_, both of who are absolutely wonderful people who would not dream of looking pointedly at me because I did not consult them before incorporating their themes into the general canon continuity in my head.

Becasue seriously guys, the sword-being-made and stygian iron-shadows thing are indistinguishable from canon in my head. XD

* * *

**Character: **Nico di Angelo

**Mood: **Love

**Color:** Black

**Word Count:** 496

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"But," Nico began, trying to look at his father's (who was two meters tall and so a lot shorter than usual) face, "I don't-"

"It is not up for negotiation," Hades looked exasperated.

"But I don't have anything to- look, if you could just bring back Bianca, I swear we'll vanish and never bother you again-"

"_Enough_," Hades held up a hand, "You will leave, alone, preferably before I am forced to throw you out."

"But I'm not even _doing_ anything here," Nico said, a little desperate, "I barely even talk to you and you don't even know I'm here. Can't I-"

"That is not the reason. You're mortal, and there is only so long a mortal soul can thrive in here."

"But-"

"Leave. Minos will show you the way out. Take one of the skeletons who can play an instrument- Orpheus's entrance is temperamental. And attempt to not come here before summer next year- you may not want to meet your stepmother."

Nico felt himself beginning to slump. He'd known Hades only for a couple of months, but he'd heard the whole "I am King and you are all my minions" tone enough times recognize it already.

"And this should help, providing you are competent enough to actually make use of it."

A long sheath appeared out of thin air, which Hades telekinetically flicked at Nico. It was black, of course.

Nico was no stranger to swords by now, but when he drew the hilt, the sword did not look like any sword he'd seen in and around the palace.

"It's black."

"Stygian iron," Hades said shortly, "You are from the house of Hades. Celestial bronze is beneath you."

"I've never heard of this."

"It is not something every brat of the Olympians has access to, and none of my family have found out how to forge it yet. It is powerful, regardless."

It was. Nico could feel it- the sword was not like the celestial bronze he'd been handling so far- less something for hacking at stuff, more artifact. It had a very distinct sense of what he was starting to call the death-damnation-doom-aura to it too. Powerful was probably an inadequate word.

"And you're giving this to _me_?"

"Your trainers have pronounced you… adequate. And the iron has other properties. It will allow you to manipulate shadows."

The tone had a distinct _you need all the help you can get_ vibe to it, which was pretty much what Nico had been expecting. But the sword thrummed in his hand and the hilt was perfect for his hands (so far, everything he'd been using was a little too big) and it was heavy but not so much that he couldn't use it. Considering his (not very impressive) size, it had almost certainly been made _for_ him.

After Bianca, that was something of a first.

"Thank you."

Hades met his eyes and gave a short nod. And for a moment there, Nico almost felt happy.

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**End Notes:** So, when I said 'with varying degrees of success', I meant it. Hades being Hades is absolutely hopeless when it comes to expressing anything like affection. Fortunately, Nico is just the slightest bit attention-starved by this point so...

OOC? Confusing? Acceptable? XD You can tell me; just leave a review.


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